Does Training Matter? A Systematic Review of Caregiver Training Within Human-Canine and Human-Human Dyads

Modern companion dogs serve various functions in human society, e.g. providing owners with company and engage them in physical activity (Westgarth et al., 2014; Zasloff & Kidd, 1994). Dogs, just like humans, can engage in socially-relevant undesired behaviors (e.g. aggression), and caregivers are an integral part of respective treatments. The current review aimed at systematically investigating the importance of caregiver training in intra- and interspecific behavior-change programs, identifying training strategies showing greatest efficacy with caregivers. This systematic review generally followed the recommendations of The Campbell Collaboration (2017) and utilized the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses (i.e. PRISMA; Moher et al., 2009) for literature selection. This process yielded 56 eligible studies comprising controlled-group, clinical-study, pre-test-post-test, single-case designs, randomized controlled trials, and case studies, (i.e. 7%, 5%, 18%, 43%, 7%, 20%, respectively), involving a total of n=1,707 participants across all eligible studies (see Table 1). These preliminary results highlight a deficit of research focus on canine-caregiver training, and behavior-analytic approaches in general of which single-case designs are a hallmark of. At the time of this abstract’s write-up (Dec 2017), data analysis was being conducted, and results should be viewed incomplete.